media coverage on legal appeals forced the u.s. military to admit the number of hunger strikers a quantum of pay has gone up but it denies more than one hundred are starving themselves. washington cuts the final part of its european missile defense shield saying there's not enough cash it will put more interceptors on its pacific coast instead. and not be a nazi veterans and supporters both young and old march to the capital riga causing discussed among locals and tourists witnessing the fascist flashback of top stories this hour. international news and comment live from our studio here in moscow this is r.t.

with you twenty four hours a day. the u.s. military has denied reports of a mass hunger strike at guantanamo bay lawyers for more than one hundred detainees claim their clients have gone without food for over a month the captives most of whom were cleared for release years ago reportedly began the protest off to prison guards desecrated the qur'an and sunnah most spokesman captain robert duran denied the claims admitting only that the number of detainees refusing all food has risen to fourteen he added that some of being force fed and one is in hospital a lawyer for the inmates told r.t. that reality is being twisted by authorities to downplay the crisis how they are defining hunger strikers that it is also one clear i think that want to know is being very careful in the way that they're they're denying these claims they're saying the number of men who have refused all food the number of men who are being to. these kinds of things there is a question about exactly how the. forty s are defining hunger strikers and

determining when when they need to be that our understanding is that based on previous standards the determination of who is a hunger striker is a discretionary determination that one tunnel makes if the definition of hunger striker is entirely in their control and it is a matter of their discretion that that explains how they are able to say that there are no more than a handful of men on hunger strike. guantanamo officials claim most of the alleged hunger strikers are only refusing regular meals while still snecking but lawyers who bring to the bodies say the short by the deteriorating condition of the detainees and despite the outcry the mainstream media continues to shun the story. reports when the u.s. joined the united nations human rights council back in two thousand and nine president barack obama announced his intention to close the guantanamo bay

detention center now as the island prison enters its twelfth year of operation one hundred sixty seeing these are still languishing there and over forty one hundred thirty are on a life threatening hunger strike the story has been denied by washington and essentially ignored by mainstream media now is r t first reported on tuesday lawyers for the get more prisoners say the men began their hunger strike on february sixth to protest the alleged confiscation of their personal items including letters personal photos bed sheets razors and also the alleged sacrilegious handling of their qur'an during cell searches now the center for constitutional rights says that they've received reports of detainees coughing blood losing consciousness and being hospitalized attorneys say that if this strike enters its forty fifth day that participants can experience hearing. potential.

now lawyers for the get more prisoners have sent a letter to u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel urging him to help and hunger strike. in the meantime organizations like the red cross have made attempts to check in on the inmates here's what a representative told r.t. . as far as we can. understand are really the result of the uncertainty. to their feet. to. go for a more detention many of them don't know most of them don't know what. it's always been our position there needs to be a clear legal framework and a transparent process. to be transparent to the strains really. of the one hundred sixty

six detainees languishing get more than eighty six to be exact have been cleared for release now this week the u.n. said that the u.s. is a violating international human rights law indefinitely holding prisoners at guantanamo without charge the human rights council is urging washington to quote bring an end to these illegal practices by either prosecuting prisoners in civilian court or releasing reporting from new york. city. just talk to mark mason says the detainees many of them innocent only being human when taking extreme measures to protest against the conditions there. outrage and being imprisoned in what can be characterized as nothing less than the american sort medieval torture chamber it's nothing less than that we get from the u.s. government along

a list of false terms and euphemisms such as detainees and rendition but we have here are conditions where on the planet sixty six people are imprisoned more than half of been cleared he should be out on the streets free today maybe six should be in a court of law like tomorrow morning dressing specific charges with appropriate opportunity to access to the defense attorneys right this is the condition we have a medieval torture chamber here. detainees are held at guantanamo indefinitely without charge or trial and some can't leave despite being cleared for release murat kurnaz was once among them held on the ground with allegations and set free without an apology he shared the harrowing details of his ordeal with r.t. i have been myself tortured and different kind of. the only reason why they brought us to guantanamo was because there's no any human rights existing over

there like in prisons or us and that's mean they could. make with us whatever they like to do and. they specially tortured me to force me for signing papers and every time when i refused they kept just touching me in different kind of face they just try to really all kind of weights to break us. saw. they tried to psychological ways and physical torture to break the detainees and the same way with myself. every time if you refused to do anything they tortured you punish you for this i must have got tortured by electroshocks and waterboarding and stuff like that but i have seen also a. kid's life nine years too if you saw the kids inside the camp and of

course it was for me more difficult to watch of those kids how they get getting beaten up in front of me and it was for me really harder to get tortured myself. and on our website we want to know your opinion on the matter every voice counts and. you can tell us why you think it is still open after more than eleven years do you think the u.s. is to blame for still not keeping its promise to close the facility or maybe that cuba should never have least the base to america in the first place or perhaps you blame other countries for using to repatriate the detainees or indeed see the nine eleven terror attacks as the main reason for keeping the base. well you can head over to our web site right now have your say if you haven't done so already here's how the voting is going so far the vast majority blame washington for failing to keep its pledges and almost equally small numbers if you think others are responsible for what's happening. if you haven't already done so it is.

a program that. defends the u.s. . and its european missile defense shield opting to put more defenses on home. the cost of living as britain prepares to embrace. we take a closer look. with . its technology innovations. developments around. so.

if. he continues the washington has scrapped a key phrase of its european missile defense shield so adding

a lack of development problems united states will deploy additional ground based missile interceptors on its pacific coast instead in what is said to be a response to pyongyang's recent nuclear threats or has the details looks like the nuclear threat coming from north korea is now considered far more dangerous by the us than any potential risk coming from iran at least it was pyongyang is missile threat that u.s. secretary of defense chuck hagel cited as the prime reason for beefing up missile capacity as an already existing base in alaska and placing an additional rater and japan at the same time washington officials announced plans to scrap the final phase of a defense shield in eastern europe which would have seen interceptors capable of destroying most of russia's nuclear missiles and that has been a huge point of contention between moscow and washington. for quite some time now in fact going back to march of last year the infamous exchange between obama and

then president meeting medvedev in seoul at the nuclear security summit with the american president saying he will have more flexibility on the issue after the elections so we could speculate this could very well be the u.s. president sticking to his promises but this doesn't mean russia now has nothing to worry about after all japan and alaska aren't exactly far from his borders and anyway there are still plans to build some facilities in eastern europe though on a smaller scale than originally planned. five agent an emotion she believes that washington is using the threats from north korea as a pretext to gain more influence in the pacific region. what we're looking at at this point is north korea being a useful idiot the pretext for america to defend a resource rich part of the world and when i was in my five for one thing we were always taught in terms of assessing a threat from any sort of source or country which one do they have the capability to do they have the intentions now of course north korea is very loudly said to

have the intention to trial attack america but they certainly don't have the capability at this point and even if they were to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles the nearest base for america they would hit only alaska but north korea's always been much more belligerent i think iran and this is the assessment of the entire u.s. intelligence community which was iran would stop trying to develop any sort of nuclear weapon if they see it in two thousand and three and this has been stood up time and time again since two thousand and seven so we all know it rather is not a real threat to america's interests we all know it's not a threat to the west and this fake shield they were trying to provide to eastern europe because they would be in range of any missiles that iran might want to launch was just a fake ploy i think it was used as an excuse so it's interesting now that the focus is moving to an overtly aggressive but very small and capable country away from iran. cyprus has secured a ten billion euro bailout deal from eurozone finance ministers to rescue its

failing economy in return for a set of cuts most severe measures in forced upon the state of the mob but everyone with cash in cypriot banks hand over ten percent of their savings to boost the national budget while overbuilt editor in chief of trans magazine told me earlier that the measures could have grave consequences. it's a very tough brows because so what has been agreed upon now means that on average there will be something like an eight percent tax because there's a difference between small and large in the. exhibition which is of course a huge shock to the cypriot economy interesting power of the people and one of the immediate consequences of this. of this measure will be that the recession which is already quite severe will be much worse but let's not forget that there. is also is a message to other countries because what has been applied to cyprus now can eventually

also be applied to other countries and i am very anxious to see on monday what the reaction will be in other so the european prizes countries in the euro zone because it is i think the fear that what has been agreed upon with respect to cyprus now might lead to. greece again in capital flight from these other countries. go to our website for some stunning birth control data from the world's most populated country the number of abortions performed by chinese doctors since beijing took up the one child policy four decades ago amounts to fourteen times the population of london. is because it's covered eastern europe with monstrous snow drifts budapest there's no other choice but to turn to war machines to rescue trapped motorists. their stories and others an r.t. dot com latvian veterans who fought alongside german nazis during world war two

have held their annual march through the capital but the mood traditionally intense there were a number of arrests after the leader of local anti fascist groups were beaten up the parade's distinct nationalist tone and clear nazi references also raise concern outside that fear. was there. silas was born in a prison in franco's fascists he and his parents were repressed by that regime so he was hurt when he learned that says veterans marched through the streets of lobbyist capital riga. all of europe fought so hard to eradicate fashion in spain and italy where it was one state ideology you would now never see even if the stations which glorify now it's considered shameful what happens here in riga is totally incredible and outrageous. marches by former lothian s.s. legionnaires in riga are nothing out of the ordinary since lotty became independent

they've been held every year the men who once fought on the side of nazi germany are seen as freedom fighters by some here a view which divides society in this post soviet state for many years this march had been forbidden by the cities of dorothy's a court decision that overturned it and the market still took place this year the high court decided to strike first even before the mayor had to say the court said that the march must take place and force the mayor to apologize for all the yes he had been banning this march the masterminds of this march lot to be as nationalists say they want the younger generation to embrace their history and recognize their heroes. you know what i'm especially proud to see so many young people today this is proof that we're living in a free country which had been under occupation for many years. but many in europe simply cannot understand what appreciation of freedom has to do with three year olds walking alongside former nazi troops especially given that is

a member of the e.u. which has no second opinion on fascism. as a member of the infamous an outside force for remembrance of the locals and it's a very good book because of its very weak economic plans but on one side you are a member of such an integral. an organization to remember what happened seven years ago in order to avoid old children to repeat the mistakes of the easterlies and on the other side those people and to lead the diversity because it's pretty clear you change a lot to be as anti-fascist movement has been fighting these marches for a decade with no success because they fear this movement is getting stronger as last year's economy gets weak and strengthening it is a well planned government tactic for the chicago but it's easy to bring up nationalist ideas to divert attention from economic troubles our parliament even

wanted to make march sixteenth a national holiday of the latvian army this is they had nothing to do with our army but in nazi germany march sixteenth it was called a day of heroes praising the army this speaks volumes to what our government is about there's a lot is anti-fascist have sent petitions to the european commission many times to help get these marches outlawed with no response so far putting pictures of nazi camps and lot of where tens of thousands perished in the one nine hundred forty s. is yet another attempt to have their outrage recognized. reporting from riga in la. the u.k. has found a cheaper way to deal with the hells in crisis the so-called bedroom tax means many who live in social housing would either lose around fourteen percent of their benefits if they had a spare room or move out. looks at how the less well off a trapped in a catch twenty two. brian

rider didn't ask for a two bedroom flat when he applied for emergency accommodation it was what the council gave him it was meant to be temporary and he's now live to fourteen year is it's my home of my dad my home we've done all the work and we've put the wood paneling on the. we in fact stopped decorating halfway through when we realized there are more i have to move because i couldn't afford it and what's the point of decorating when i want to uproot but it's more harm not all of my mind it will upset me to move on but brian who suffers from osteoporosis and can't work has little choice the government's so-called bedroom tax comes into effect from april first six hundred forty thousand social housing tenants with at least one spare room to have to cough up the cash from their already stretched budgets will move and there is friends bedroom according to the government let's fast is now

officially under occupied that's because he's also got this bad dream. and as a result he's going to have to fork out fifty pounds from his housing benefit every month in order to pay for it that's money that bryan needs to put towards food and heating so he's willing to downsize in order to avoid losing the money he so desperately needs but he's been told that there are no available properties i asked them for problems once was about six months ago for moving to a one bedroom every time i've been told me to one but nevertheless westminster says the twenty three billion pound housing benefit bill needs to be slashed people are being told they should move to a smaller flat but in my constituency there are fewer than a hundred places people could move to a much fairly typical across the country as a whole if you can't move to a smaller property you can't avoid it you just have to pay the money and you're

left with very very little i'm not just does seem very unfair the government is saying they won't have a tax on big mansions but they are having a bedroom tax on the poorest people in the country the department for work and pensions declined to comment on the controversial policy the impending changes of course such widespread concern that the government announced the parents of those serving in the armed forces foster carers and parents of severely disabled children will now be exempt from the changes as for the rest of the body in this situation is being blocked into a corner and until the council finds him a smaller fact brian will have to take the financial hit i haven't had any suggestions from any of them about what to do if and when they do is run out and i find it hard to do which i would now realise is happening it's coming closer. i have no choice in the matter it has been getting even more stressful the closer we get to the day because i just don't know what i'm going to do with what many are

calling black april fast approaching critics say it's those with the least. that is being hit the hardest. step. some of the world news in brief for you the hundreds of march on the parliament building in the afghan capital the demonstrators are demanding the release of several people allegedly detained by the u.s. military and an immediate pullout of american troops from the country's would act province this after the afghan president had given u.s. troops two weeks to leave following allegations that locals have been abducted and tortured the wardak province has seen a recent increase in american led insurgency operations. clashes broke out in the canadian city of montreal after five hundred people attended an annual rally against police brutality hundreds of officers used pepper spray and cattle in tactics to disperse the march declared illegal protest organizers claimed there were up to two hundred fifty arrests. jordanian authorities reported that the

bus filled with palestinians overturned in the border with israel killing at least fifteen people including the driver the vehicle was traveling through jordan from a religious pilgrimage in neighboring saudi arabia the accident apparently occurred after the brakes failed and the driver lost control skidding off the road after bad weather upset plans to return the international space station's crew back to earth on friday two russian cosmonauts and an american astronaut have now landed safe and sound with more on the team's voyage home here's our correspondent tom. kevin ford oh leg novitsky and yes guinea terril kin are back safely on earth after their five months stint up on the international space station on the video screen here at mission control in moscow you can see them being fished out of their soyuz capsule and kept warm after that rough descent through earth's atmosphere and down

on to the step in kazakstan their return to earth delayed by a day because of bad weather they're casual came in today over the caspian and black seas without a hitch to be met by recovery teams on the step in kazakhstan for the first time ever those teams including three women helping to fish them out of their capsule and get them on the road to a climate izing back to the atmosphere here on earth whilst on the international space station they help the crew up there conduct maintenance on the orbiting platform and also research much of that research focusing on the effects of microgravity both on the human body and on various engineering substances the next manned mission up to the international space station in a couple of weeks time will attempt something novel for a manned mission that is to rapidly and drastically cut the time it takes for those three crewmembers to get up to the space station from the current two days

down to just six hours and that mission will carry the next three crewmembers up for their turn orbiting earth. and there will be that with the news team and huff and i would more news coming away now though with his unique view of the world's financial headlines it's mexico and the cars report after this break. wealthy british style.

market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with my next concert for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to the report. prize or welcome to the kaiser report you know the problem of china starting a currency war that

a half hour later you want to start another one this year for booking a side what's going on there next. yes that's a train down there coming to penn station but you know there are consequences the biggest story that we've been covering here in the kite report for the past three or four years and china has been very vocal speaking out against the currency war why china fears currency wars on friday commerce minister chen deming was the latest to raise concerns about competitive currency depreciation and the effects of excessive money printing by central banks the head of china sovereign wealth fund was less diplomatic reportedly warning japan against treating your neighbors as your garbage bin and starting a currency war right what i thought according to christine legarde everybody was on the same page with this global currency war that they were all devaluing together and that there was a currency war it was a currency worry it doesn't sound like that's playing out in the pacific currency

war theater one would think they were you know it to be a pass of this currency war on china's behalf they've been very concerned about america and their money printing and quantitative easing but it's moved down to japan their concern primarily now is about japan because since the middle of last november the end has fallen by close to eighteen percent against the dollar this is likely to prompt capital flows into hard currency so in the asia region max they're considered the you add it's considered hard. currency relative to the yeah so all this capital inflows are going into china causing inflation crossing more property speculation right while bank of japan is bennett socially nationalized by the new government in japan and they've been told to print print print money and wildly recklessly out of control meanwhile mark carney's being moved from the bank of canada over to the bank of england this man they like to.